FAQs

For cisgender men—who often don’t have access to the HPV vaccine—this includes penile cancers, anal cancers and cancers of the throat, as well as genital warts. To help reduce the burden of HPV-related cancers, Canada has set a target of achieving 90% HPV vaccination coverage of adolescents by 17 years of age, by 2025. 

For cisgender men—who often don’t have access to the HPV vaccine—this includes penile cancers, anal cancers and cancers of the throat, as well as genital warts. To help reduce the burden of HPV-related cancers, Canada has set a target of achieving 90% HPV vaccination coverage of adolescents by 17 years of age, by 2025. 

For most people, HPV causes no symptoms and eventually goes away without treatment.1 However, in cases where it does not go away, it can cause health problems like cancer and genital warts.   

Each year, 3,800 new cancer cases in Canada are attributed to HPV. By 2042, this number will increase to 6,600. For this reason, BC’s government extended HPV vaccinations to include school-aged boys in 2017. School-aged girls had been provided coverage as early as 2008.

The first public campaigns for the HPV vaccine focused on cis teenage girls but since that time, vaccination criteria have changed to include people of all genders. 

For cisgender men—who often don’t have access to the HPV vaccine—this includes penile cancers, anal cancers and cancers of the throat, as well as genital warts. To help reduce the burden of HPV-related cancers, Canada has set a target of achieving 90% HPV vaccination coverage of adolescents by 17 years of age, by 2025. 

HPV is very easily transmitted. Simple skin-to-skin contact is enough for HPV to be passed between sexual partners. Wearing an external condom or using other barriers, like internal condoms or dental dams, can provide some protection because they reduce the amount of skin that comes in contact between sexual partners. However, no barrier method covers all the skin that might touch, and so is not fully effective. The best way of preventing HPV infection is the HPV vaccine Gardasil 9. Find out more information about preventing HPV infection.  

HPV infection increases the risk of developing six different types of cancer. Cervical cancer is almost exclusively caused by HPV and HPV infection is also the cause of other anogenital cancers and oropharyngeal cancers.   

To help reduce the burden of HPV-related cancers, Canada has set a target of achieving 90% HPV vaccination coverage of adolescents by 17 years of age, by 2025.

There are over 150 types of HPV, and the Gardasil 9 vaccine guards against the ones that cause over 90% of genital warts and others that are associated with different cancers. When a person has had a genital wart, or a type of precancerous condition or form of HPV-caused cancer, you still may not have had other forms of HPV that the vaccine prevents. The HPV vaccine will not cure a type of HPV that you already have, but it can prevent you picking up the that the types that you don’t have.

Some private labs can test for certain forms of HPV that cause cervical cancer, but they are not part of routine STI testing or care in BC. Most types of HPV don’t cause symptoms and are not harmful, and the body will often clear them up on its own, making direct testing unnecessary. The most common way that HPV can harm our health is by causing precancerous conditions that can develop into cancer in some cases. Routine cancer screening can detect these changes before they develop into cancer, when treatment is most effective. 
 
HPV is also responsible for over 90% of genital warts. A nurse or care provider can examine these warts and recommend treatment, without the need for further tests.  

Gardasil was originally developed to prevent the two types of HPV infection that result in most cases of anal and cervical cancers and the two types that cause over 90% of genital warts. Public vaccination campaigns used this version of Gardasil from 2006 until around 2017. This version of Gardasil is now known as Gardasil 4, because a newer version, known as Gardasil 9, prevents five more types of HPV that can also cause cancer. Cervarix is approved for use among cis women in Canada and guards against the 2 types that cause most cervical cancers, but was not used in public vaccination campaigns. 
 
Whether it is worth it or not to be vaccinated again with Gardasil 9 depends on a person’s body and health needs. The additional five types of HPV that Gardasil 9 guards against are most relevant to people with cervixes. These five types of HPV are responsible for an additional 15-20% of cervical cancers, and are associated with 11% of anal cancers in people with cervixes (compared to 4% of anal cancers in people without cervixes). If you have been vaccinated with Gardasil 4 and are unsure whether you should also be vaccinated with Gardasil 9, speak with a doctor or trusted health care. 
 
Currently in BC, if someone was vaccinated with Gardasil 4 and still qualifies under the provincial free vaccination program for people under 27, they are not eligible to receive Gardasil 9 for free.  

Gardasil 9 prevents the same four types of HPV that Gardasil 4 guards against, plus five more. Getting a second and/or a third shot with Gardasil 9 after beginning the series of three shots with Gardasil 4 will provide the same protection against those four types. It will also guard against the additional five types that Gardasil 9 prevents, even if it isn’t as complete as having had all three shots with Gardasil 9.  

Hundreds of millions of doses of the Gardasil vaccines have been administered around the world since public vaccination campaigns began fifteen years ago. This was done only after thorough clinical trials showed the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.  

Gardasil 9 is not associated with any unusual negative side effects or reactions. Some people will experience soreness or swelling where the vaccine was given, or fever, headaches, and/or muscle or joint aches or soreness shortly after. These side effects are similar to most other vaccines.